Today I did a small ritual to my patron Athena to remove obstacles for my upcoming trip to Texas next weekend. Angelo and I have a difficult time with the planning. We initially set this trip in stone in January and all was good to go, we had approval, we reserved and bought everything, and then shit hit the fan this past Wednesday at his work. Servers went down, immediate conversions were rescheduled to the weekend of the trip, etc. He started working 8am to midnight just to help fix things. Last night I was told the trip was definitely off, then an hour later that it was on but iffy. This morning it was definitely approved as on, so long as shit doesn’t hit the fan again.
Hence the ritual to remove obstacles.
I did not pray to a deity that was particularly known for this, I prayed to my patron because she is who I feel most comfortable with, she is one who gets shit done. Not only that, but she provides us with the wisdom to figure this stuff out. We’ve brainstormed several ways to make this trip possible, self-sacrifices we would both have to make, etc. Figuring that stuff out was no easy task at all.
I also redressed my altar slightly for spring. I use a table that my father created with his own two hands in highschool, with a lot of elements on it that have a specific meaning to me. It’s JUST big enough, though I might could use a smaller offering bowl and a better tree representation.
Some details:
Honoring the Earth: I honored Gaia, using a bowl of soil from the Parthenon in Greece that a friend of mine was able to collect for me on her archaeology trip out there last year.
Offerings to Athena: Very high priced olive oil from Greece to Athena, which I plan to also burn in a fire outside later on, as part of the offering and to create the smoke. Also some mayan copal to not only remove negative energies (as it’s known for), but to create the necessary smoke over coal to deliver my gifts and prayers. I committed to write a song to Athena, and also a hymn. I committed to finish up a bunch of stuff that is currently left unfinished on my plate, and to work towards being more pious on a daily basis. I also offered to make a $50 donation to an owl sanctuary in Canada my next paycheck, which coincided as an offering for the nature spirits as well. I am also supposed to get more involved in the Hellenic kin and learning more about Greek Mythology in general.
Omen: I had originally forgotten to get my deck of cards, so was trying to do a natural omen, but it was not working. So I gave in and got the cards, and pulled a card that meant self-sacrifice when asking if my prayers had been accepted. I took that as a no, which is when I started offering more service oriented offerings above.
After that, I pulled a card that meant usable energy, which I took as a sign that they had been accepted this time around. So I pulled three cards to see what message Athena would have for me regarding this upcoming journey.
#1 Advance
#2 Sharing/Quickening
#3 Decisions
I took this as a VERY good omen about this trip in general. Not only was this trip going to advance my relationship with Angelo, but that our lives would soon start to meld themselves together and the relationship would progress further and more quickly. There may be decisions we have to make in the future in regards to the relationship, but in general I took this to be a good thing.
So I am very happy with this small ritual, and I pray that this next week is more calm and supportive of this trip.
